Ah, good afternoon my readers. This post is for my American readership who, if they are anything like me, don't care about domestic spying at all. *cough* Dot dot dot? What did I just say?
Well, according to an article in Time Magazine, that's exactly what is being claimed. And if you read it, it seems to be saying that only a very few people, mostly civil libertarians, actually feel there is anything wrong with it. However, read the article closely and you'll find a slight problem. There is no citation. Of anything. Ever. Where are these polls? Where do they get their numbers from. I'd like to see what cross section of people they were speaking with, because I know I really care about being spied on.
Well, I'm not the only one, it would seem, to feel this way. Here we have a fine article by Glen Greenwald. He disects the article, picking it apart bit by bit, and showing real, actual citations to the "facts" that Time is trying to back. This article is smart, precise, and exemplary of true journalism. One that checks the facts. Careful, Americans, become too complacent and this sort of 1984 propaganda will become overwhelming before it can be stopped by real and honest journalism.
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Not a one. Interesting. And, from the first article: "The IG found some continuing abuse of the power (of warrantless subpoena), but blamed it for the most part on sloppiness and bad management, not nefarious intent."
They go on to mention other instances - two by my count - and then say that "the civil libertarians have to look to future abuses." Why not look to the abuses they've barely mentioned?
And how, exactly, do these presumed good intentions excuse the infringement of civil liberties on a national level?
When the Patriot Act first came out, I was working in a library. This was when the big debate came out about seizure of library records, to see if anyone's reading habits were "suspicious." We had ourselves a little rebellion. Pamphlets were distributed all over the library exhorting staff not to go along with the new laws. They had rhetoric to the tune of "you may get arrested for not giving up someone else's private information, but it'll totally be worth it." While the logic was fuzzy, I fully agree with the sentiment. Fortunately, none of us ever had our fledgling rebel resolve tested.
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